Energy intensity has declined significantly in four Chinese industries -- pulp and paper; cement; iron and steel; and aluminum. While previous studies have identified technological change within an industry to be an important influence on energy intensity, few have examined how industry-specific policies and market factors also affect industry-level intensity.
... See More + This paper employs unique firm-level data from China's most energy-intensive large and medium-size industrial enterprises in each of these four industries over a six-year period from 1999 to 2004. It empirically examines how China's energy-saving programs, liberalization of domestic markets, openness to the world economy, and other policies, contribute to the decline in energy intensity in these industries. The results suggest that rising energy costs are a significant contributor to the decline in energy intensity in all four industries. China's industrial policies targeting scale economies -- for example, "grasping the large, letting go off the small" -- also seem to have contributed to reductions in energy intensity in these four industries. However, the results also suggest that trade openness and technology development led to declines in energy intensity in only one or two of these industries. Finally, the analysis finds that energy intensities vary among firms with different ownership types and regional locations.
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Since the onset of economic reforms in 1978, China has been remarkably successful in reducing the carbon dioxide intensities of gross domestic product and industrial production.
... See More + Most analysts correctly attribute the rapid decline in the carbon dioxide intensity of industrial production to rising energy prices, increased openness to trade and investment, increased competition, and technological change. China's industrial and technology policies also have contributed to lower carbon dioxide intensities, by transforming industrial structure and improving enterprise level technological capabilities. Case studies of four energy intensive industries -- aluminum, cement, iron and steel, and paper -- show how the changes have put these industries on substantially lower carbon dioxide emissions trajectories. Although the changes have not led to absolute declines in carbon dioxide emissions, they have substantially weakened the link between industry growth and carbon dioxide emissions.
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